The following is a list of graphics cards details for how they work with Rhino.

As you add your listing, please use all of the table entries and add as much detail as you can. Here is a link to a Rhino script that will give you more information about your video system than you probably want to know: http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/content/upload/files/video.zip
Thanks. John Brock

—- (Added 3/14/2013)

Brand

Intel

Model

Intel HD Graphics 4000

NOT RECOMMENDED by:

John Brock

Notes:

Computers including 13“ Apple MacBook, 13” MacBook Pro, and 13“ Retina, and any brand laptop that only has the embedded Intel graphics chip, should be avoided for Rhino for Windows. This chip does not support Windows OpenGL adequately. You will be plagued with problems we can not fix. Many 'Hybrid' laptops also have a secondary 'high performance' graphics chip (by AMD or Nvidia), intended for graphics intensive applications, do work very well. These hybrid computers are recommended.

—- (Added 1/3/2013 - Updated 7/24/2013)

Brand

Nvidia

Model

Quadro 600

Comments by:

John Brock

Notes:

See August 2014 Update note below: So far, my experience with the Quadro 600 has been pretty bad. I ran into crashing problems using their driver version 310.90. Nvidia tech support suggested installing 311.35 (current drivers), installed using the Custom option and selecting a “clean” install. The current driver is no better. Every few minutes, Rhino and any Chrome browser windows I had open would turn black, and a message about the Nvidia driver had stopped responding and had recovered. It locks up Rhino and Chrome. Rhino didn't even have to be running and Chrome still locked up. I can not currently recommend these cards. I have removed it from my system.

More Notes:

Recently, a number of users have been reporting performance and display problems with the current Quadro drivers. It seems that support for the OpenGL 2.0 and Shader 1.2 specifications are not as robust as they once were. Some users are reporting performance degradation with Quadro cards between Rhino V4 and V5. Rhino V5 SR2 includes a change that seems to improve performance for these Quadro cards.

August 2014 update

This month, NVIDIA issued a major driver update that seems to have fixed many of the problems reported with Quadro cards. The new driver update 340.66 issued this month seems to have fixed these problems for both Windows 7 and Windows 8. I have no reservations in recommending these cards now.

—- (Added 1/3/2013 - updated 5/8/13)

Brand

Nvidia

Model

GTX

Recommended by:

Brian James

Notes:

I've used a couple cards from this series including the GTX 470 and GTX 690. Both have worked great and there are many drivers available on Nvidia's site if your particular hardware combination is causing display issues. Updating the drivers is often the fix.

—- (Added 12/16/2011)

Brand

AMD

Model

FirePro v7900 and FirePro v5900

Recommended by:

Jeff LaSor

Notes:

It turns out that I just recently completed a certification process for AMD using both the v5900 and v7900, and McNeel was even mentioned in their launch of these cards. Both very nice cards and both work incredibly well, especially given their very small footprints compared to other cards. Long story short, I've replaced my FirePro v8800 in my development box with the FirePro v7900. Yes, it's that good. All I can say is that AMD is now doing a great job getting their cards working for real life situations and programs rather than trying to figure out what the next marketing hype can be made about something that rhymes with Pooduh. All of the latest V5 display features have been tested and confirmed as working for the v5900 and v7900. If you can afford the 7900 then get it. The 5900 performance is not as good, but again, it's amazing how good it really is given its overall size, power consumption and heat generation. Two thumbs up for AMD!

Addition August 2012:

Several advanced users on the Rhino newsgroup have reported bad experiences with this card in the area of antialiasing - which is far inferior to Nvidia cards - to the point of removing the cards from their machines and going back to an Nvidia card. Jeff himself has stated “Nvidia has been, is, and probably always will be better at AA than AMD… Why? I have no idea. Will it change? I have no idea? Can I fix it on my end? I have no idea, but so far I don't think so.” So, if you are planning to buy one of these cards, make sure to check the newsgroup and do your research first.

—- (Added 4/11/2011)

Brand

AMD/ATI

Model

FirePro V5800

Recommended by:

Aya Maeda

Driver version:

ATI driver 8.77.6.3 Rev.A

Notes:

This card had strange display problems when Zooming and Panning until the user called AMD and they recommended the above listed drivers. These cards were originally recommended for Microstation. Do not use the “Use region buffers when available” in OpenGL options.

—- (Added 3/2/2011)

Brand

Nvidia

Model

Nvidia GTX 295

Recommended by:

Rhino Support Newsgroup

Notes:

The newer GTX 300, 400, and 500 series replacements seems to be intentionally disabled for OpenGL performance. Their OpenGL performance is measurably slower than the GTX 295.

—- (Added 3/2/2011)

Brand

Nvidia

Model

Nvidia Quadro 4000, 5000, 6000

Recommended by:

Rhino Support Newsgroup

Notes:

These are expensive cards but deliver better performance than the GTX 295. Most users report good performance and minimal issues using the ODE drivers.

I manually process a lot of Rhino crash reports. These cards are total junk for OpenGL based applications like Rhino. AVOID THEM! Lots of crashes even with relatively simple commands like PictureFrame. Be aware that many laptop makers are using these. AVOID THEM!

These are more bad cards. These cards are not intended for OpenGL based, graphics intensive applications like Rhino. They are commonly found on inexpensive laptops intended for email, Internet browsing, and are good for very little else. That said, they will work, but they do not support accelerated graphics.

In V3, sometimes the Status Bar labels (Snap, Ortho, etc.) do not show but still are active. Also surface selection in shaded mode has highlight problems.

Comments

This card works fine on all versions of Rhino. It supports Rhino's special graphics modes. Even though it is a “game” card its performance is good and it is not very expensive. This was one of the cards that was used for testing the new V4 display pipeline. We found lots of little details during the V4 development with this card. Mine is running in a Dell Dimension 4600 system.

This card works very well and is one of the few “workstation graphics” cards available on laptop computers. The “Quadro” line of cards is designed for OpenGL graphics applications like Rhino. This was one of the cards that was used for testing the new V4 display pipeline. This card has always been a solid performer for me. It is running in a Dell Precision M60 laptop.

In V3: disappearing Objects and Screen-Smudge in rendered viewports when AA is enabled

Comments

This graphics card is often found in consumer notebooks and has very good general 3D performance. If it weren't for the glitches when using AA it would be an excellent budget solution for using Rhino on a latop

No matter what drivers I try, I run into problems. Had problems any time four viewports used OpenGL (crashed Rhino), then changed drivers and now I cannot get any anti-aliasing. I cannot recommend this card at all.

This card worked fine with V3, but was very buggy with V4. Performance was mediocre on a 2.8 GHz P4. With 2 monitors and the 2nd monitor housing a floating perspective viewport, there was often corruption of the display requiring a re-start. Child menus for the toolbar buttons also do not appear at the cursor location when using the ATI dual monitor desktop manager (Hydravision).

Submitted by:

B. Gom

Brand

ATI

Model

RADEON X1600Pro

BIOS version

009.012.006.002

Driver version

6.14.10.6599

Operating system & SP level

Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2

Special Rhino settings

None

Special driver settings

Dual display

Rhino versions used with

V4

Known problems

Toolbar child positioning, object snap tooltip corrupted

Comments

This card was installed to improve the performance over the 7000 series card. 3D display is much faster, but ultimately limited by the main processor speed when drawing complex scenes. Corruption of the viewport contents seems to no longer be a problem with this card, although child menus for the toolbar buttons also do not appear at the cursor location when using the ATI dual monitor desktop manager (Hydravision). Enabling full antialiasing on the card improves the 3D display (shaded, ghosted, etc) while not significantly reducing the performace, however, in wireframe viewports the lines suffer a lot of blurring. Antialiasing can not be enabled on only one monitor in a dual monitor display using the graphics driver (TestSetAALevel does work, however). Tooltips for the object snap display worked initially, but now are corrupted and unreadable. The official workaround of adjusting the windows video performance slider one step to the left seems to work.